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Privacy Your Rights Online

Olympic Tickets Contain Microchip With Your Data 254

Posted by kdawson from the what-has-identity-to-do-with-intent dept.
OMNIpotusCOM writes "Tickets to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies will contain a microchip with information about the ticket holder, including a photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail, and telephone numbers. The stated intent is to keep troublemakers out of the 91,000-seat National Stadium so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television, but it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft."
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Olympic Tickets Contain Microchip With Your Data More

Olympic Tickets Contain Microchip With Your Data

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  • Well That's It (Score:5, Funny)

    by camperdave ( 969942 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:13PM (#23566171) Journal
    Well, that's it then. I'm not going.

    • Re:Well That's It (Score:5, Funny)

      by dreddnott ( 555950 ) <dreddnott@yahoo.com> on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:16PM (#23566193) Homepage
      Yeah, I was so going before this news came out. Totally unlike the PRC!

      • Re:Well That's It (Score:4, Insightful)

        by NoobixCube ( 1133473 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @11:31PM (#23566707) Journal
        What's totally unlike the PRC is that we've heard about it.

      • Re:Well That's It (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Porsche917K ( 1210342 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @04:53AM (#23568189)
        Sod the PRC. If it's been done once, I'd bet good money on exactly the same system being used in London in 2012, too.

        Yay.

        • Re:Well That's It (Score:4, Insightful)

          by CmdrGravy ( 645153 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @06:46AM (#23568737) Homepage
          Actually I think the Government has some sort of wet dream of using the Olympics to roll out some of it's identity card nonsense so expect it to much worse than anything China is currently planning.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by mdwh2 ( 535323 )
          If it's been done once, I'd bet good money on exactly the same system being used in London in 2012, too.

          Exactly the same? No, no - whatever China do to invade individual privacy, you can be sure that the UK Government plan to outdo them ;)

          As an added bonus, all of the microchipped tickets will be lost in the post.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ihatewinXP ( 638000 )
        Well I have been inside the birds nest for three events now and here are my experiences:

        1st time - walked right through security. Got the magic wand treatment - they didnt take my lighter - kosher like Christmas

        2nd time - Might as well have been going through a gestapo checkpoint. Literally took me five minutes of taking my entire wardrobe apart, checking my iphone, and harassing me to my obvious annoyance before I got through

        3rd time - (Two nights ago) I beeped going through the metal detector - she gave m

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by BananaPeel ( 747003 )
      Yep definately.

      Just go to the 2012 event

      After all in 2012 in the UK you'll have:

      Tracking technology is being developed that can enable a spectator to be tracked from the venue to his or her home with the tickets, what Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur calls "end-to-end tracking of tickets".
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7340174.stm [bbc.co.uk]

      I am sure that can't be abused

  • Oh the irony. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrbluze ( 1034940 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:13PM (#23566173) Journal

    .. it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft.
    Coming from a nation that brings up serious concerns for pretty much every other human right I can think of, this comes as no surprise.

    • Re:Oh the irony. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Brian Gordon ( 987471 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:25PM (#23566269)
      How is this irony? How can you possibly go to China and not expect these sort of massive privacy/rights violations?

      • Re:Oh the irony. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by mrbluze ( 1034940 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:28PM (#23566295) Journal

        ow can you possibly go to China and not expect these sort of massive privacy/rights violations?
        Because for a second people might be thinking China might at least try to be nice for a change, at least to foreigners with whom they might want to do business.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Anyone who thinks that hasn't paid any attention to China for decades.

        • China does not have to be nice. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by arthurpaliden ( 939626 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:56PM (#23566497)
          So long as everyone wants to buy cheap stuff at WalMart, the foreigners will not care about the human rights record of China only that they saved 'all this money' buying stuff they do not need with money they do not have.

          • Re:China does not have to be nice. (Score:5, Interesting)

            by bm_luethke ( 253362 ) <luethkebNO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @12:23AM (#23567033)
            If you think it is only cheap stuff at wal-mart you may want to start checking your labels again.

            There are many high dollar products crappily made in China and sold at whatever your favorite retail outlet happens to be.

            I don't find wal-mart to be particularly worse than the vast majority of stores in terms of amount of crappy Chinese goods. The others, for whatever reason, make people feel good for paying more for the same crap they could have gotten for 20% less (and a different brand stuck on said products coming off the same assembly line with the same materials).

            To find non-crap you not only have to be lucky enough to have a store locally that sales such items but also know enough about whatever you are purchasing to know what is and isn't crap.

            In the end people purchasing crappy products made in china at a high price contribute more than people purchasing cheaply made items at a cheap price. The profit margin there is HUGE even when you take into account the extra money spent on advertisement to get people to hate the less expensive place to purchase it.

            And, to note, one can very much find some quality items made in China - I have some cookware and cutlery that is quite good (and yes, I have several good kitchen knives - a few Henckel "s" grades and a Shun - but it is really hard to beat a Chinese high carbon steel cleaver and the hammered carbon steel woks are great).

            • Re:China does not have to be nice. (Score:5, Informative)

              by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @03:22AM (#23567803)
              I don't find wal-mart to be particularly worse than the vast majority of stores in terms of amount of crappy Chinese goods. The others, for whatever reason, make people feel good for paying more for the same crap they could have gotten for 20% less (and a different brand stuck on said products coming off the same assembly line with the same materials).

              Sometimes yes they are the same.

              Sometimes the materials going in aren't quite the same quality. (using lower quality steel, or cheaper plastics, or whatever...)

              Sometimes the goods coming out are held to lower standards. (ie stuff that would have been rejected for the 'premium brand' is good enough for the 'walmart brand'.

              I recall film in particular was like this some years ago. The brand name stuff and the generic stuff was indeed made in the same factory on the same line from the same stuff. But QC on the brand name stuff was higher. Flaws in batches that didn't meet the brand's QC levels but were still 'ok' were sold under the generic brand.

              Bottom line, knowing a product came from the same factory and even assembly line as product X means squat. It might be the same product. Or it might be highly inferior.

            • Re:China does not have to be nice. (Score:5, Interesting)

              by digitig ( 1056110 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @05:24AM (#23568301)

              There are many high dollar products crappily made in China and sold at whatever your favorite retail outlet happens to be.
              Not necessarily as crappily made. I once visited a clothing factory in China, and the factory floor was divided into two. On one side were the low-skill girls using poor quality sewing machines churning out the cheap stuff. When they got to a certain standard they were promoted to the other side of the shop floor, got a pay rise, used better quality (western!) sewing machines and got stricter quality control. There are differences, even in stuff coming out of the same factory.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
            Buying cheap stuff does not infringe on your privacy. I am not sure to see the link here. China agreed to some standards when it accepted to organize the Olympics, it is not holding to them. It should be a contractual dispute. It has nothing to do with the trade of goods.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • But which nation are you referring to, China or the US/UK? I kid, I kid,

      ...but other govermnents already know a "good idea" when they see it. People are still trying to develop and legalize ubiquitous, biometric ID schemes. Imagine having to carry your biometric passport with you everywhere you go because it's required to board a domestic flight or to go to a rock concert. Ze paperz pleez.

    • And If I go to the US (rant/troll) (Score:5, Informative)

      by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @04:25AM (#23568075)
      I get finger printed, photographied, sometimes interrogated, paper-ed, belt & shoe stripped , and in future even technically stripped with some Tera-hertz waves. They can also snoop my laptop, require that I give my addresses where I live, and as far as I know, I have to have my passport ready at any time. The only difference I see, is that the chinese want to keep the same info on a stadium ticket and most probably in a database, whereas the US keep it in a database.Big. Effing. Deal. Sorry but you both suck for foreigner on privacy ground.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by lgw ( 121541 )
        And the Chinese are probably not actively rude to you during the entry process either, something we in the US *really* need to fix. If we're going to collect all this info from visitors, at least we should do it politely! I'm very pro-US by /. standards, but this situation is an embarassment to the nation - there's no excuse for thus sort of rudeness by government officials.

        • Re:And If I go to the US (rant/troll) (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @09:29AM (#23570365)

          And the Chinese are probably not actively rude to you during the entry process either, something we in the US *really* need to fix. If we're going to collect all this info from visitors, at least we should do it politely!

          Amen, brother! I'm a US citizen (middle-aged White Anglo-Saxon Programmer) who occasionally travels abroad. Without exception, the US customs officials have been the rudest I've ever encountered.

          <rant class="us_border_policies">I was in England at the height of the whole Mad Cow thing. When I returned to the US they distributed fliers on the plane warning us about Mad Cow, that it was a very serious thing and be sure to disclose if you've been to any place rural. The same fliers were posted all over the international terminal at O'Hare. So I fessed up to the customs guy (or is it the immigration guy? Whoever stamps your passport) that yes, I'd been hiking in rural England, I had crossed a few cow pastures, and probably trod in a cowpie or two. He just grunted(*) and waved me through. WTF?! What's the point of all the warnings if they're not going to do anything about it?</rant>

          (*)And I mean that literally. He grunted. Not a single syllable of any intelligible language came out of this guy's mouth. And that brings us back to having the rudest officials in the world.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Gorm the DBA ( 581373 )
        You're free not to come in whenever you please.

        Sorry, but cross our borders, submit to our policies.

        Similarly, you're free not to go to China and attend the Olympics if you wish not to.

        (okay...I'm done channeling Bush...can you please remove the electrodes from my genetalia now?)

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by photomonkey ( 987563 )

        Sir (or Ma'am):

        I travel quite extensively for business and pleasure to countries rich and poor, 'Eastern' and 'Western.'

        I can assure you that being a foreigner visiting another country never gives you many rights, everyone keeps databases and your information is probably never really that secure.

        I have applied for visas for various countries and have been shown my intelligence record for a few, including information about where I stayed in-country, who my contacts there were, and even in one case, the

  • Scalpers? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrbluze ( 1034940 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:18PM (#23566205) Journal

    Chinese authorities initially considered tying all 6.8 million tickets to individuals
    .. and then it says..

    The plan [tried once in Germany] was aimed at deterring scalpers...
    Why don't they just attach them to people's scalps. Scalpers can then go about their business in the traditional fashion, possibly as was once practiced at the original Olympics thousands of years ago.
    • They were going to suggest this, but everyone feels bad enough for what happened in Munich that they didn't want to use the term scalper and Germany in the same sentence. They were close to Godwin'ing themselves anyway, just leave them alone already! =)

  • Just wait this is only the first (Score:5, Insightful)

    by arthurpaliden ( 939626 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:21PM (#23566239)
    Actually the real scarry thing is that if it works there then we are sure to see it used in other venues where security is a consern such as the World Cup (Soccer).
    • Indeed, its not so much this act unto itself, but the consequences of it, especially if successful (whatever that may mean).

      I wouldnt be surprised if it didnt trickle down to even the major games in Footbal, Soccer, Baseball etc...

      My immediate reaction was "how bad do they expect it to be"... I can understand name, passport info, and picture (although shouldnt any non-citizens already have their passport which contains all this info?), But telephone number and street address etc? are they expecting some gia

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by iminplaya ( 723125 )
        I wouldnt be surprised if it didnt trickle down to even the major games in Footbal, Soccer, Baseball etc...

        It will trickle down much further than that. Soon you will need one of these cards to unlock the door to your house... from the inside.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Splab ( 574204 )
        They are already planning on introducing it to soccer games (not passport information though) for purpose of tracking violent fans in Denmark.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by JCSoRocks ( 1142053 )
      If security were *really* a concern at soccer games they wouldn't let *anyone* in. Those soccer hooligans are fierce!!

    • Really worse than the last one? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:51PM (#23566467)
      Where Visa was a sponsor and you could only use a Visa card to buy tickets.

      If they wanted to, they could have very easily tracked card number, and thereby person buying, with ticket info.

    • Re:Just wait this is only the first (Score:5, Informative)

      by Marillion ( 33728 ) <(ericbardes) (at) (gmail.com)> on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @12:03AM (#23566915)

      They already did .... http://www.pcworld.com/ [pcworld.com] and http://networks.silicon.com/ [silicon.com]

      Counterfeiting was the public reasoning for the RFID chips in the 2006 World Cup tickets.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mocm ( 141920 )
      They already did that for the last world cup.
      You had to register for your ticket and you could not give it away. So they could check if you are the person that ordered the ticket. I don't remember if they already had a chip in the ticket, but when you can check the serial number against a database, you really don't need a chip.

  • I don't see the problem (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Phantombrain ( 964010 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:24PM (#23566263) Journal
    I don't see the problem with this. It's not like China has ever has taken advantage of technology to control people there. There aren't any stories of people being arrested just for disagreeing with the government. There aren't any human rights issues in China.</sarcasm>

  • Tibet (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:24PM (#23566267)
    >> so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television

    So much for free Tibet... with every purchase.

  • cruise (Score:4, Interesting)

    by overcaffein8d ( 1101951 ) <d@cohen09.gmail@com> on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:25PM (#23566271) Homepage Journal
    i went on a cruise and having photos seems quite regular for regulating getting on and off the boat. i can understand China's point of view of trying to keep out bad people. though it raises moral concerns, don't forget that there's a big chance for terrorism--especially with the protests to china. i'm not saying that it's a good thing; i'm just playing the devil's advocate-- i don't want big brother either, unless it's in the hands that i voted for.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      explain how having personal information would prevent any trouble makers, or terrorists?

    • bad people (Score:4, Insightful)

      by poptones ( 653660 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @01:22AM (#23567317) Journal
      with... flags! Those evil terrorists might unfurl a flag and kill... no one!

      It's sad the tone of this article from CANADA so readily equates acts of terrorism with the possibility of someone simply unfurling a tibetan flag. Is it just the english speaking countries that have gone completely batshit insane, or is liberty actually enadangered EVERYWHERE in the world now?

      • Re:bad people (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Free the Cowards ( 1280296 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @08:40AM (#23569747)

        Is it just the english speaking countries that have gone completely batshit insane, or is liberty actually enadangered EVERYWHERE in the world now?
        It's the latter. However, this is no change from before. Liberty has always been endangered everywhere in the world. Liberty is not the natural state of humanity. It can only be preserved through the constant actions of those who support it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Pascal Sartoretti ( 454385 )
      i can understand China's point of view of trying to keep out bad people

      Sorry, for me the chinese government are the bad people.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aussie_a ( 778472 )
      In China someone is a terrorist if they believe in free speech and decent wages.

  • OMG (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iminplaya ( 723125 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:25PM (#23566273) Journal
    Ticketmaster China

  • Call me a skeptic, but (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Prisoner's Dilemma ( 1268306 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:25PM (#23566275)
    Call me a skeptic, but I don't see how having my email address embedded in a ticket would keep out troublemakers.

    Maybe they feel there's a correlation between someone who doesn't want to share personal information and troublemaker.

  • would this be unreasonable for a business? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by VoidEngineer ( 633446 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:40PM (#23566393)
    Going on the premise that China is the worlds first mature fascist government, would these tickets be considered unreasonable if the Olympics were being sponsored by a corporation? What if ExxonMobil hosted the Olympics? Or Walmart? Or HSBC? Or General Electric? If any of these companies hosted a sporting event, would it be unreasonable for them, as a business, to track this data within the tickets? My thinking is that China is simply becoming more of a corporate entity than a nation (albeit, a corporation with a billion employees). It seems like these tickets reflect that concept. Agree? Disagree?

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Ravon Rodriguez ( 1074038 )
      Disagree, unless China plans on cold calling me during dinner.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by syousef ( 465911 )
      Going on the premise that China is the worlds first mature fascist government, would these tickets be considered unreasonable if the Olympics were being sponsored by a corporation? What if ExxonMobil hosted the Olympics?

      Let me get this straight. You're on slashdot asking if Walmart was selling something, and attaching electronic passport (and other sensitive) information on it, whether we'd consider it unreasonable??? Your /. Id's not that high. Where have you been? Are you even writing that with a straight

  • Those pesky troublemakers, eh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Attaturk ( 695988 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:41PM (#23566397) Homepage

    The stated intent is to keep troublemakers out of the 91,000-seat National Statdium so that they cannot cause disruptions while China is on world-wide television, but it brings up serious concerns for privacy and identity theft.

    I'd say it also brings up pretty serious concerns about the various definitions and interpretations of the word "troublemaker". Perspective is a wonderful thing - until they take it from you. ;)
    • People doing stuff other people don't like, regardless of what it is.

      The question is, how big of a trouble makers can you be before you go to jail?

      • The question is, how big of a trouble makers can you be before you go to jail? In China? Depends on how many tanks are present on the square.

  • Uhm... Why? (Score:5, Informative)

    by MaliciousSmurf ( 960366 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:48PM (#23566445)
    If it's for one event, it strikes me that they could have a unique ID number for each ticket, and then just cross-reference that number with an external database. Methinks that'd take care of a lot of problems.

  • So What? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by IchBinEinPenguin ( 589252 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:54PM (#23566481)
    Most of the visitors will already have an RFID passport on them.

  • Since when did the Chinese government care about privacy and identity theft? They don't even care about human rights. You'd probably get a bullet for even mentioning the issue, in China.

  • Why bother with photos? (Score:5, Funny)

    by BluBrick ( 1924 ) <blubrick@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @11:00PM (#23566517) Homepage

    Westerners all look the same, anyway.


    What's that? Ohh, you round-eyes got no sense of humour!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by mrbluze ( 1034940 )

      What's that? Ohh, you round-eyes got no sense of humour!
      I've got square eyes, you insensitive clod!

  • Why are we putting up with this? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Crayboff ( 1296193 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @11:06PM (#23566563)
    This should not be tolerated! Our president must take a stand! President Bush should be willing to have America boycott the opening ceremony, just as the French President is willing to do, if China does not stop this nonsense-ical human rights violations.

  • Is this not more like "Your Rights Offline"?

    Seriously, though, way back in the Stone Age when I attended the Olympics, things were a lot different. The volunteers were given unsold tickets for the events, and they basically had tickets for any event that was not sold out. I got to be friends with them and got a lot of free tickets.

    So, what would stop somebody from using somebody else's ticket? Are they seriously thinking of carding everybody at the door to every event? That would have been impo

    • so they could literally have hired everybody who will work the Games
      At 5 cents a day why wouldn't they hire everyone?
  • Never mind a chip. What's the lead content of the tickets?
  • from the Chinese? You don't say.

  • If you are not a Chinese citizen... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vigmeister ( 1112659 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @12:28AM (#23567053)
    I do not see why you would have a problem with this. As someone who entered the United States from a different country, when I paid to attend college, all my information is tracked by the government (through my college). Other privacy issues involve my phone calls being freely tapped into. In fact, something that inconveniences me (not a privacy issue) is people not being able to transfer money into my bank account online which marks me as a non-resident alien.

    As an alien in this country, I am subjected to intrusion of privacy by a multitude of institutions that I do business with - The only way to avoid that is to "go under" and become an illegal immigrant.

    I perfectly understand the need for this. I am an immigrant to the USA and if the society here (which has been nice enough to tolerate me) feels safer by having my life glimpsed at, I am OK with it. I strongly dislike it, but atleast they let me stay here eh?

    What my college does with my privacy and what the Olympics committee of China does with a tourist's is not all that different.

    I would however be mighty pissed if I were a Chinese citizen and subjected to this treatment. I truly feel sorry for them.

    I am just pointing out that aliens in a country having their privacy violated is not unusual and as an alien I am not particularly bothered by China doing it to tourists.

    Note: This is NOT an "I have nothing to hide" issue. It's more of "Thanks for letting me be in your house, you can watch me and I will be on my best behaviour"

    Cheers!

    • Re:If you are not a Chinese citizen... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pythonist ( 1289628 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2008 @12:42AM (#23567123)
      You tell the foreign side of story. I will tell you from the Chinese side. As a Chinese, I don't see any problem neither. As long as I buy tickets using my credit card, my info is already there. Ticket contain my name in DB is not a problem at all. We can tolerate some level of privacy violation for safty reason, just as Americans can tolerate tight security check in airport. Check in Chinese airpot is like a joke before recently for Olympics but we dont' think it has anything to do with freedom. We simply don't need such security level before Olympics. Foreigners simply don't understand the way Chinese people do things --- we don't deem personal freedom in No.1 priority and there are many things more important to our value system such as family and social harmonious. PS. I'm new to writing here so If someone tell me how to paragraphing I will appreciate much.

      • You tell the foreign side of story. I will tell you from the Chinese side. As a Chinese, I don't see any problem neither

        There you have it. Everyone's happy!

        A lot of things that the occidentals assume is best for the world are things whose importance varies by culture. While I am a huge fan of freedom of speech, it is not something you necessarily take for granted in countries like Singapore, India and Indonesia (where I've lived). Propaganda on the other hand is something that I have been somewhat 'culture shocked' by in the US because in India where I grew up, urban dwellers with a good education are not targeted by propag

  • that microwaving your tickets might not be so wise of an idea.

  • China Bashing (Score:2, Redundant)

    by EEPROMS ( 889169 )
    Im pro-human right just as much as anyone else who enjoys calling their politician dicks but lets inject some reality here. For those Americans talking about a police state go talk to anyone who is visiting the USA and you will see all the weird and bizarre hoops you now have to jump through that makes a visit to China look like a visit to your local coffee shop. Those who come from Europe, ID cards big brother camera all over the place and knee-jerk politicians bringing in "we have the right to anal probe

  • Obligatory (Score:2, Funny)

    by Firefalcon ( 7323 )
    In Communist China your ticket holds you!

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